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Did you know that when it comes to internal combustion engines, Estimated EPA that just one hour of operating a lawn mower produces the same emissions as 11 hours of driving a modern car? Lawn mowers aren’t equipped with catalytic converters, so they’re filthy smoke machines — generating up to 5 percent of our nation’s air pollution. And according to an industry group called the Outdoor Electrical Equipment Institute, it’s not just lawn mowers. There are 100 million gas-powered mowers, trimmers, blowers, tillers, etc in America’s tool warehouses, and 54 million of us mow weekly during the growing season. That is a real problem.
But that’s a problem with a real solution. Many of us at auto blog owns and uses electric lawn mowers combined with gas powered lawn mowers in the aisles of large stores. And when we compared the notes, we discovered that we all enjoyed these tools very much. Here are some recommendations.
I have a house on an acre of land, with a low pitched roof, that needs regular debris removal. So I bought a Ego . Leaf Blower And Trimmer. The 530 cubic foot per minute blower blows away patios and driveways, and moves mountains of maple leaves. The cord cutter can clean almost an entire acre on a single battery, and it automatically winds up new wire — winding was a tough job with previous trimmers.
Recently, a small tree needed to be brought down. I pulled out my cranky old gas-powered chainsaw, then spent over an hour fiddling with it to get it running. The saw produced a cloud of blue smoke. Makes me appreciate power tools even more.
You can still buy the basic trimmer / blower starter pack I bought, but Ego’s store on Amazon now has more than 50 products — the entire line blowing machine, saw machine, hedge trimmers, wire trimmer, multi-head tool, snow blower, lawn mowerAnd battery system with packages up to 10 amp hours. (I have two 2.5Ah batteries.) There is also a line of sturdier commercial-grade tools. The ego even has 42″ rotary lawn mower that’s fine for up to two acres.
Three years ago, Consumer Reports did a comparison between the Ego walk-behind lawn mower and the Honda petrol model. The ego keeps its own.
Amazon offers battery-powered gardening tools from many other manufacturers: green building, joe sun, makita, Black and tierAnd red snapper, to name a few. Many of them are probably fine as well. — Greg Rasa, managing editor
RYOBI ONE+ 100 MPH 280 CFM Variable Speed 18V – $179.99
I picked this up a few years ago. It’s a solid value, and I use the 18 volt battery for other things, such as my Ryobi drill. The leaf blower is light, cordless and quiet. I get about 15-20 minutes of use at full capacity, which is fine. I can clear the weeds and get a decent patio, that’s why I got it. Leaves move across sidewalks very well, but for a full fall cleanup in the upper Midwest or New England, you’ll need something more robust. If you already have a Ryobi battery, you can buy a leaf blower even cheaper. — Greg Migliore, editor-in-chief
CRAFTSMAN Electric Chainsaw, 16-inch, 12-Amp – $89.00
This is my power saw. It’s wired and I haven’t seen through the extension cord yet. I have a lot of old trees in front of my house that fell with big branches in the storm. This lightweight chainsaw makes them quick, relatively quiet, providing me with tons of free firewood. I like that I don’t breathe smoke other than sawdust, but I still have to fill up my stick and chain oil tanks (many of which are plant-based). It’s easy for a fool like me to adjust the chain tension and clean up when the cut of the day is complete. — John Beltz Snyder, senior editor of Autoblog Green
Greenworks 16-inch Roller Lawnmower with Grass Catcher – From $98.88 (24% off)
I don’t live in California, so any ban on gas lawn mowers doesn’t affect me directly, but recently when I went to market to buy lawn mowers, I still didn’t want to deal with it. faced with having to buy and stockpile gasoline. , so I chose push breaker. I also love the idea of turning lawn mowing into a workout. I should point out that I have a small yard, so if you have serious space to maintain you will want to look elsewhere, such as this battery powered mower from Green Building. But I’ve had this roll cutter for three seasons now and it’s still working fine.
Sometimes I’ll need to watch YouTube tutorials on how to sharpen the blade, but for now it’s still cutting the blades of grass like it came out of the box. It’s not a silent experience, but I like the metallic sound it makes when it’s cut. Watch out for the sticks, as they will block the blade and it can be quite jarring, but only for a moment as this is an easy to remove lawn mower. It goes without saying, but keep pets and children away when using this tool. — Eddie Sabatini, executive producer
Greenworks Pro 80V 21 Inch Push Lawn Mower – $414.00 (17% off)
It’s an open secret that one manufacturer actually builds several different versions of the basic design for electric lawn mowers under multiple brand names. I happen to own a blue lawn mower sold by Lowes under its Kobalt brand. It’s an 80-volt breaker, and it works great. I picked it because it’s on sale at Lowes, but if I were to buy it now, I’d pick it up from Greenworks. It’s basically the same lawnmower I own — except for the color, and I actually prefer green anyway — so I’m confident it will work just as well.
The 80 volt platform provides more than enough power for my lawn, which is a pretty typical size for a suburban lot, and even a 2Ah battery should last about three full mows. Amazon is providing two configurations for this Greenworks cutter, one with two 2Ah batteries and the other with one 4Ah battery. Those have the same capacity, so you can choose whichever is cheaper. Batteries can also be purchased separately and will work in any 80 volt tool of that brand. — Jeremy Korzeniewski, consumer editor
BLACK+DECKER 20V Max String Trimmer/Edger Kit – $95.04
I bought this Black+Decker cord cutter (when do people stop calling them lawnmowers?) a few years ago and it’s been the only machine I’ve used since. This particular listing is exactly the one I took advantage of, and it’s a small part of the original kit, which is great because it includes not only the tool itself, but also an extra coil, kit. battery charger and 2 batteries. The battery had enough power for me to complete a maintenance pruning at the highest of its two power settings without draining a single battery. However, in the rare cases where I need a second one, I just quickly take it out of the charger and immediately get back to work.
The power is quite enough to cut all standard Midwest weeds, and when I recently picked up a competing brand’s string trimmer owned by my father, I was pleasantly surprised when Found out that this version of Black+Decker is amazingly light, making it easy to use one-handed mower to get to the lowest weeds in my front yard drainage ditch.
I’m perfectly happy with this as it’s my only weed-removal solution, however, I would say its hemming capabilities should probably only be used for maintenance situations. If you’re really looking to get into some overgrown lawn, you’ll probably need something heavier. — Erik Maier, multimedia producer
RYOBI 20 Inch 40V Brushless Lawn Mower Rear – From $499.95
I purchased an older equivalent lawn mower a few years ago after moving into a house with a relatively small lawn (~6,500 square feet). Property is relatively flat, so I don’t need self-propelled equipment, and even with a relatively small battery, it will still do my entire lawn on a single charge. Also, the battery swaps with another Ryobi 40V device, so when I pick up a leaf blower (same thing that Greg marked, when it happened), I doubled my available juice.
It’s much quieter than any gas mower I’ve ever used, to the point where I don’t even need ear protection; it’s like pushing a medium sized box fan around the yard. This is a great bonus for me because one of my neighbors works at night and I don’t have to worry about waking him up if I decide to mow the lawn in the middle of the day. It’s lightweight and easily folds up to the size of a deck when not in use, plus it requires virtually no maintenance. Couldn’t be happier. — Byron Hurd, deputy editor
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